York and Adams Counties clean up

Friday's storm poured four to eight inches of rain across the region

First Lutheran Church member Robert Dockey uses a rented carpet cleaner to treat the damaged carpet in the church s fellowship room on Saturday afternoon. (Clare Becker The Evening Sun)

Robert Dockey stood in his church's basement Saturday afternoon, with fans blowing all around him and the cool fall breeze flowing in through the open doors and windows. The green linoleum floor was dry now, but the night before was different.

Dockey was still at school in Dover on Friday when he got a phone call from a friend, saying his church's basement was flooded.

Dockey, a second grade teacher, drove to New Oxford and spent his Friday night fighting to get water out of the building in the midst of a storm that poured up to nine inches of rain across Adams and York Counties.

The church is short on money, he said, but even though it was a Friday night, 20 people joined him to dry out the basement.

"A lot of us answered the call because we knew the cleaning costs would be through the roof," Dockey said.

But their hours of effort were no use. The rain wouldn't stop, so they decided to call it a night.

"We thought we'd just hope for the best," Dockey said.

Dockey returned Saturday morning with about six others to get rid of the four inches of water in the church basement as well as the water in the basement of the neighboring parish house.

This isn't the first time the church has come together to help with a cause, or even the first time the congregation has dealt with water in the basement.

Advertisement

After Hurricane Sandy, Dockey and others had to do the same kind of work. The flooding this time around was because of a clogged pump and some new leaks.

"It's been a problem before, but never this bad," Docket said.

By 2 p.m. Saturday, the church basement was mostly dry. He said the only thing that needs to be replaced is the carpet in the Sunday school area, in an alcove with a picture of Noah's ark on the wall.

And in Dover Township, John Yost and his wife Tina hardly had time to get the animals in the upper level of the barn -- the one on Detters Mill Road with Jesus painted on the side of it.

The first floor of his stone home was trashed; the wood floor he laid himself was coated in a layer of dark mud. His furniture was ruined.

He's been through several other floods while living in his home on Detters Mill Road; Hurricane Sandy, Tropical Storm Lee and Hurricane Isaac. There's a line marking where the water came on his house for each one, and Friday's storm rises above them all..

His house was built in 1840, along Conewago Creek.

"It's nice living along the creek," Yost, a 56-year-old oil and gas worker, said. "When the water behaves itself."

ODESSA, Texas (AP) — A West Texas man has been charged with impersonating an officer by using sirens and flashing lights to skip to the head of the drive-thru line at a fast-food restaurant. Full Story

Sufjan Stevens, "Carrie & Lowell" (Asthmatic Kitty) Plucked strings and pulsing keyboards dominate the distinctive arrangements on Sufjan Stevens' latest album, and in the absence of a rhythm section, they serve to keep time. Full Story